On the left, a crew of stevedores at the Chemainus wharf stands before a fully rigged ship, her sails clewed up for drying. Based on a photograph from 1901, the scene is typical of the busy harbour on any given day. Sailing ships and steamers, as many as five at a time, would be loading or waiting to begin their ‘lay days’.

At the centre, a boom man sorts logs in the slippery danger of the log dump. The mill is portrayed here as it was in 1892; it was the third operation to be built on the site. Owned by the Victoria Lumber & Manufacturing Co. Ltd., it was improved over the years until a fire destroyed it in 1923.

On the right, Engine No. 21 of the V L & M Co. Ltd. rolls off another load into the Chemainus log dump. The year is 1899. The locomotive, a 2-8-0, has already seen two decades of work, having been built for the Pennsylvania Railroad as Engine No. 248 in 1879 (CN 433).